--:-- Shamitha Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, October 4th. I'm Shamitha Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: On today's show, how two teenagers got caught up on opposite sides of the illegal fentanyl trade. Who gets the dog in a divorce? Courts are getting more involved. And why an infamous murder case from the 90s is back in the news.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: But first, to Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign event in Wisconsin last night. It was notable for a couple of reasons. For one, the featured guest. I tell you, I have never voted for a Democrat. But this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: As former Republican Representative Liz Cheney, She made the unusual move to endorse Harris in September, but this was the first time she joined Harris for a campaign event.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: The location was significant, too. The town of Ripon, Wisconsin, which has been called the birthplace of the Republican Party. A local schoolhouse hosted a critical meeting in 1854, where a group of people from different political parties came together to protest the expansion of slavery to additional states.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: That meeting gave rise to the Republican Party. Nodding to that history, Harris spoke directly to Republican and independent voters who are feeling disaffected with former President Trump.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And that's a broader strategy the Harris team is leaning into hard during this final stretch of the race.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: I know the vast majority of us, regardless of your political party, agree we must hold sacred America's fundamental principles. From the rule of law to free and fair elections to the peaceful transfer of power.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And if you share, if you share that view, no matter your political party, there is a place for you with us and in this campaign.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Now, the vast majority of Republicans are expected to vote for Trump. But it's worth mentioning four million people in the primaries voted for his top opponent, Nikki Haley, with many of those votes coming in after she'd already dropped out of the race.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And it's less certain what those voters might do in November. According to Politico, almost one million of those votes came from six of the seven battleground states. In Wisconsin alone, over 75,000 people voted for Haley.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And that's a margin that matters, considering in 2020, President Biden won the state by just over 20,000 votes. Haley has said that she endorses Trump, but a number of people that ran her campaign in other battleground states like Michigan have said they plan to support Harris.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: There has been a growing push from the Harris campaign to highlight Republican voices who are supporting her including former lawmakers like Cheney father former Vice President Dick Cheney and members of Trump first administration.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: One of the latest to endorse Harris is former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson who testified during the January 6th committee hearings in Congress.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: She spoke with MSNBC this week about her reasons for supporting Harris. I care about issues like inflation, and I would anticipate that there are probably few issues that Kamala Harris and I do see eye to eye on.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: But I recognize that she is a leader that I admire, that stands in principle, that wants to hold people accountable, and that is somebody that is honorable and will cherish our nation and protect our Constitution and our Republic.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: CNN reports that Hutchinson will join Cheney at another event for Harris next week in Pennsylvania.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Let's turn now to reporting from ProPublica on the opioid crisis and its impact on teenagers here in the U.S.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Until very recently, reporter Lizzie Presser told us the epidemic mostly involved adults. Since COVID, we have seen a rapid shift among adolescent deaths.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Today, around 22 teenagers die every week on average related to drug overdoses. So the rate of overdose deaths among teenagers has more than doubled in three years since 2019.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: This is the highest recorded rate of overdose death for teenagers in history. And what it's driven by is the influx of fentanyl into the drug supply.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Presser zoomed in on one story out of Wisconsin involving two kids on opposite ends of the fentanyl trade. One is 15-year-old Malia.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: She grew up around a lot of different drugs. And at a certain point when her mom could no longer keep her, she was taken in by her older sister, Mariana, who had learned to support herself by selling weed and then eventually by selling fentanyl, which was often sold as if it were Percocet.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And once Mariana was incarcerated, Malia, at the age of 15, started getting calls from all of Mariana's buyers. Malia began selling drugs.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: At one point, she sold to another teenager, an 18-year-old named Jack. At the time, Jack was struggling in school, struggling with his mental health.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: His mom suspected he was using Percocet and got Jack to rehab. After he was released, he overdosed on a pill Malia sold him.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: His mom was shocked to learn there was fentanyl in his system. The teachers at school hadn't told her that fake Percocets contained fentanyl.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: The rehab center that is set up to treat addiction hadn't warned her how prevalent fentanyl was in fake Percocets. And she felt suddenly not only abandoned, but totally let down and disappointed by all of these institutions that she had once trusted to help her.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: There is a gold standard treatment for teens addicted to opioids that Jack wasn't given, a drug called buprenorphine.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: It can prevent withdrawals, cravings, and overdoses. But Presser says most pediatricians trained in addiction treatment and many don't feel comfortable prescribing the drug to minors.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: ProPublica found just 39 rehabs in the country offer the medication to people under 18.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Meanwhile, Presser told us, Melia was the first juvenile in Wisconsin charged with homicide for providing fentanyl that led to a death, and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: What we are seeing across this country is that there's a failure among educators who aren't resourced to help with an addiction crisis among teens, A failure among pediatricians who simply aren't prescribing the gold standard treatment to teenagers.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: A failure among rehab centers and other treatment centers that aren't providing the care that kids need. And then again, a failure among the juvenile justice system and the police officers who are treating this as a law enforcement issue rather than as an issue where they can see that kids need help.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: They're seeing kids as criminals. At the start of the investigation into her son's death, Jack's mother wanted justice. But after seeing Malia in court and learning about her story of neglect and abuse, she told Presser she walked away feeling strangely protective of the young girl and angry that she wasn't better supported through her own trauma.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: If you're listening in the Apple News app, stick around after today's show. We'll have this ProPublica story queued up to play for you next.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Let's turn now to a story from The Washington Post that looks at the rise of legal pet custody arrangements.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Reporter Sarah Murphy told us about a woman named Sharon who'd recently gone through a divorce. Even though it was amicable, it was tough figuring out what to do with Ozzie.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: He's a miniature Australian shepherd and she loves him. Sharon travels a lot for work. So to avoid uprooting Ozzy from a stable home, she agreed to let her ex hold on to him for a bit after adding a clause to the divorce agreement stating that Ozzy would stay with her for a few months as soon as her work schedule allowed it.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: These kinds of written out arrangements drive home just how much our relationships with our pets have changed over the years.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: A recent Pew survey found that 97% of pet owners consider their animals as part of the family.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Murphy has a few theories as to why. One factor I think is that fewer people are having children.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And so pets can become the repository for that love we have. We don't have fights with our pets in the same way that we have fights with the people in our lives.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: So there's that. I think it's a little too simplistic to say it really is unconditional love. But again, there are always less fraught relationships.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And also the fact that a lot of us are living alone or aren't necessarily married, more singles.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: I think all of this plays a role. All that's to say when human breakups happen, it's hard to decide who should say goodbye to the pet.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: That's where the legal system is now catching up. And while more states are passing laws to outline joint pet custody, pet experts warn it's typically not in the best interest of the animal.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Murphy told us about a mediator who helps families navigate custody issues. Over and over she would see dogs who were acting out because of the stress of the divorce The setting had changed or the home had changed and that didn't work for them.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: I think over and over she picked up on this idea that people mean well, but for instance, 50-50 shared custody week on, week off, it's definitely not good for pets.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: One way to avoid having to deal with this issue is to get a pet nup, basically a prenup agreement on what to do with your pet if you break up.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: But in some states, it'll be up to a judge to decide. A new law in Rhode Island requires judges to decide who has a stronger emotional bond with the pet, and even lists toys as a basic need for an adequate home.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. First, ports are reopening on the east coast and along the gulf after port operators and striking dock workers reached a tentative deal.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: The agreement to end the strike reportedly includes a wage hike of around 62% over six years.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: It's only a tentative deal, so there's always risk that it could fall apart over details. But for now, people are getting back to work, clearing a backlog of cargo, like hundreds of containers of imported coffee beans.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Prices had spiked along with the labor dispute.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: One of the most infamous murder trials of the 90s is getting revisited. The L.A. County District attorney says he's looking at new evidence in the case of Eric and Lyle Menendez.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: They were convicted of killing their parents and sentenced to life in prison in trials that became tabloid sensations.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Prosecutors said the killings were to get the parents millions. The brothers argued self-defense following years of sexual abuse.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: The new evidence relates to the abuse questions, and the review could lead to a retrial, lesser sentence, or release from prison.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: The Menendez case is one of many true crime stories from decades past that are back in the spotlight because of a podcast, or in this case, a Netflix series.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And finally, it turns out we are living in a big moment for laughing heirs. That's heir as in inheritance.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Unless you're an estate lawyer, you've probably never heard this phrase before. Laughing heir refers to someone who inherits money that they never saw coming.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And the Wall Street Journal reports it's apparently connected to something mentioned earlier in the show, more and more people choosing to not have children.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: So laughing heirs are becoming more common. And it's not just surprised distant relatives getting money.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Charities are benefiting from this trend, too, as baby boomers start to leave behind trillions of dollars in wealth.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: And if you're already listening in the News app right now, we've queued up that story from ProPublica about the two teens who got caught up in the illegal fentanyl market to play for you next.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
--:-- Shamitha Basu: Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back with the news on Monday.
